Happy Fathers Day!

To my daddy:

I wish I were home to bake you up something gloriously sweet and fattening to tingle and thrill your tongue (perhaps a carrot cake cheesecake pound cake triple layer dessert??? Oh my, the madness!), but alas I am a 5 hour flight from home. I did bake today, although from premade mixes. I made blueberry muffins and white cornbread muffins. I will eat one in your honor ;P

I want to thank you for everything you are and are not. For all that you've done, and all that you will continue to do and be.

To the father who watched over his daughters, his wife, his family.
Who never forgot about the needy or less fortunate.
He who stays youthful, thanks to a tireless passion for surfing and martial arts;
To the father who shares my passions, and gets excited about technology and science.
Who enjoys the outdoors just as much as I do.
To the dad that gives us what we need and even beyond what we want,
Such an unending love that cannot be encompassed by words.

You've done so much for me, for Cat, for Mom. I always feel blessed for having such great parents, who love me and provide for me without reserve. You've taught me to become selfless, thoughtful, intelligent, and discerning as you are. Faults and virtues alike you've shown and taught me. You truly are my hero, and someone I not only look up to, but strive to do better for. Just the thought of you inspires me to do the best I can, in all that I do.

Thank you, Daddy. For being there for me my whole life, and supporting me in what I do, and giving me advice when I need it. You keep me strong in spirit and body.

Happy Father's Day. I love you a lot.

To Kung Fu Panda. *wink* ;-)

The Third Week Part 1

Meh, I've been slacking. A whole week left unblogged. To start off, this was a very eventful week, did something nearly every night.

Saturday, June 11
I attended this business seminar entitled something like "Business in a Turbulent Economy." It was sponsored by the Mays Business School here, mostly for A&M alumni, and went from 9-5pm with a happy hour reception afterwards. I attended and wore my business dress. You may be wondering, You are a bioengineer; what are you doing attending a business seminar? No, it was not just for the breakfast and lunch. I wanted to see if I could learn anything about the economy and business from this. I do have hopes of one day opening my own business, be it a bakery, a franchise, or a biotech company.

View from the Universitiy Club, top of Rudder tower

It was pretty good (food was definitely really good, lol). The seminars were interesting and the people were both funny, nice, and talkative. The first speaker sounded like Forrest Gump, no joke. My favorite seminar was this funny one about how many people abuse Powerpoint when giving presentations (click the link). I sat next to this woman who was more excited about playing Angry Birds on her Nook and a woman and man who doodled and constantly whispered and giggled to each other. Haha, I thought it hilarious how these adults were so kiddish at this professional business event.

The whole thing about "Aggies help Aggies" fosters this community atmosphere among these alumni. They were really nice to talk to and told me about resources. At the reception, I chatted with a woman working with IKEA in Dallas, and she told me about a non-profit group there that refits medical devices to be used in third world countries.

The seminar itself was enlightening and allowed me to explore the business world. I definitely enjoyed myself.

Sunday, June 12
Umm, I don't remember much, except that I went to Schlotzsky's again:

The "Original" - pretty yummy

Monday, June 13
Sigh, no vessels again today. So, Tam and I just did more mathematical modeling. I climbed a tree:

Tuesday, June 14
Attended another lunchtime seminar. This time, the REU seminar had a grad student panel, in which we asked about "Life as a Grad Student." Sounds like grad school is the way to go in this troubling economy, and one must be diligent about searching for funding. Not everyone gets funding as a grad student. You really need to constantly look for fellowships and grants.

I can't remember when I did this, but I visited the Cosgriff-Hernandez lab here. Dr CH is a biomedical engineer whose lab focuses on tissue engineering. I asked for a tour of the lab, which one of the grad students politely obliged. It was really cool. They create various hydrogels as grafts for blood vessels if one needs to be removed in surgery. The grad student who gave me the tour showed me her hydrogels and said that they use polymer chemistry synthesis to attach certain integrins to allow for selective binding of cells to the inside of the hydrogel. When the hydrogel is inserted, you do not want all types of cells and biological debris binding to the inside, otherwise it would just clog the vessel and prevent normal function. I got pretty excited and plan to prepare myself for a future in working with stuff like this. I need to take a polymer chemistry synthesis class and continue with my tissue engineering track.

Wednesday, June 15
No vessels yet again, so Tam and I did more mathematical modeling, yay! We met in the afternoon and tried to develop some empirical model of lymphangion response, but we actually spent half the time doing a crossword puzzle. LOL. We finished it though! First one I've ever done!!!

After, we walked to the rec center and I tried some rock climbing. One guy there helped me out a bit by giving me pointers while climbing. I could only do one rock climbing path though. It's tough.

This girl makes it look like she's gliding across the wall.

Nighttime rolls around and we head over to Ash's cousin's place. We play rock band, which is a good return for me after two years. Fun stuff. And then Lin let me borrow "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Mastermind." I watched "How to Train Your Dragon" that night. Sooooo good! I am seriously buying this movie when I return home. The way they made the dragon act and move is very true to animal behavior: the sliding scale between curiosity, love, fear, and defensiveness. The animation was great, and the story was superb. It was not a strained, heavily milked story-line, and neither were the jokes. It did not try to make too much humor, but had a decent amount to aid the story along. The main characters are likeable, although the annoying teen side-characters are the only "strain" on the movie. Definitely a recommend if you haven't seen it yet.

TX June 9-10: George Bush Museum

Day 9: Thursday, June 9, 2011
I need to add some fun stuff about Wednesday night. We went to Paddock Lane and did some karaoke. They have a karaoke competition that starts at 10 pm (actually really gets going around midnight) and ends usually around 2 am. I went with Ash and Lalis and managed to persuade them to sing. It was a lot of fun. I sang "Walk Away" by Kelly Clarkson, "Won't Say (I'm in Love)" with Ash and Lalis, and then "I Will Survive." It was a lot of fun, but we left around 1 am, since we all had to get up early the next day.

So, Thursday, I came in to lab, practiced dissecting and mounting lymph vessels. It was kinda hard, and I think I probably poked a lot of holes in the poor vessel. Plus, I cut it pretty short, probably too short to be effective between two valves. At least I got it on, I suppose.

I also got to see what S was helping out with. She was doing stuff with Phuoc, mapping out the bat wing. Cute! Had to be uber sterile though, because Phuoc is the only one that is inoculated against rabies.

Since I finished at noon, I ate and went to explore near HEB. After shopping round (I caved in a bought some muffin and cornbread mixes and aluminum muffin pans), I waited at the bus stop to get back. I started chatting with this TAMU student next to me. He was really nice, actually from Cali as well, but came out here following his girlfriend and then decided to stay because he really liked it here. He told me about how every month during the school year, TAMU has a Zombies game that students and non-students play. People with Nerf guns are humans and people with bandanas tied around their arms are zombies. It sounds like so much fun. I immediately thought of my boyfriend and Nick and how psyched they'd be about it. I want to play too! The TAMU guy was nice enough to take both buses back with me since he lived nearby. People are so nice around here.

Day 10: Friday, June 10, 2011
S and I went into lab but didn't have anything to do. I persuaded her to go with me to the Bush, Sr., and Barbara Bush's birthday celebration at the Bush Memorial Library and Museum. President George H.W. Bush's birthday is June 12 and Barbara's birthday is the tenth, so I guess the museum decided to do the midpoint of their birthday. We got there and I ate some cake and Blue Bell ice cream (still unhappy that this popular ice cream company uses high fructose corn syrup and many other ingredients rather than a small amount of simple ingredients). Then, we toured the place. They have a heart health exhibit that showcases the red dresses of the First Ladies and special red dresses designed for some celebrities. Look at the slideshow below! I liked the one for Katie Couric the best.

Then here is a slideshow of the photos and presentations inside the museum, all about Bush, Sr.,'s life. They even reproduced his Oval Office there, but you have to pay to take a picture.

For dinner, we went to Jin's Asian Cafe. I got the healthy steamed chicken and veggies with black bean sauce on the side, with the unhealthy fried rice.

Fried rice, steamed chicken+vegs, black bean sauce

Bimbimbap (with lettuce?)

Decent food here. Strange that it serves Thai, Indian, Korean, and Chinese food. Chinese food is relatively good, Korean doesn't seem legit, and don't get the chow fun! Those are NOT the noodles that are supposed to go with that dish! They used some weird kind of thin thin thin noodles. Don't think my friend liked it.

No partying that night, though, but met Ash's cousin and mom. So awesome, her cousin likes steampunk and Y: The Last Man too!

TX 6/7-6/8

Day 7: Tuesday, June 7, 2011
I didn't have to go into lab until after 1, so at lunch, I went to Henry's Cajun Food, this little square shack in the middle of the parking lot shared with Taco Bell and McDonalds'. I ordered the Crawfish Etouffee, because Rebecca said that crawfish was really good and I've been meaning to try some legit Cajun/Creole food (that doesn't break the bank! *shakes fist at Disney's Bayou restaurant).

Small (12 oz) Crawfish Etouffee - $4.75

I boiled up some kale and ate it with it. Good spices and flavors, but the taste/smell of crawfish is a little strong. I don't think crawfish is my go-to protein, but the dish is overall tasty. It's a tomato-based roux with crawfish pieces over rice. Reminded me of a spiced seafood risotto. The rice was thick and creamy thanks to the sauce all over it. I split this in two, enough for two (light-ish) meals.

At 6, all the REU students were invited to a welcome dinner with speaker Dr. Pettit on "How to get the most of your REU Internship." They catered from On the Border Mexican grill, and the food was good. I made two large flour chicken-black-bean-squash-lettuce-salsa-guacamole-sour cream tacos. The rice was simple, light red-brown, and came with corn. Good, didn't give me indigestion as most original Mexican rice does. The black beans were delicious with specs of tomatoes.

Dr Pettit was a very good speaker, telling us what we should do to make long-lasting relationships, learn thoroughly, and advice on how to approach academic research. Most important is to make yourself known to the professor, show efficiency and productivity, keep contact after the program, and always be ready for an opportunity. These I should really keep in mind, when I consider grad school soon.

Day 8: Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Darn bug bites. I got 4 total and 3 are persistent and aggravating. They are so itchy and they are almost like rashes. T_T Let it be over already...

Lunchtime we had our first seminar sponsored by Dr Hsieh. Dr Ji presented to us about MRIs. It was quite interesting. I get excited when I understand things. MRI used to be called "N"-MRI for "nuclear" magnetic resonance imaging, but the nuclear part was dropped later because it gave a misleading connection to radiation. The MRI works on the basis of quantum spins. The nucleus is mostly protons (+ charge) with electrons (- charge) revolving around it. This spin creates an individual magnetic field per molecule (right hand rule, thumb is direction of field). Normally, each molecule is oriented randomly in space, but when an external field is applied, some molecules line up parallel and others anti-parallel to the magnetic field. Furthermore, if an electric coil is placed near the molecules and the field, it can read a frequency coming from the molecules that translates into its spatial identity. There are more complex stuff, but that's what I remember and care to explain about right now. Look it up! Wiki MRI!

Went back to lab after that, where I observed and minutely helped my grad mentor attach lymph vessels to a fluid flow contraption, put flow through it, and try to get it to intrinsically pump. After 2 failed attempts (lymph vessels were dead), the third one finally showed pumping and we were able to get a pressure reading. Wow, 5-ish hours to jut get some pressure readings. This may be a tiring research project, but that's what research always is. A lot of waiting. It'll be interesting to see how things come along when I get my hands in on the action.

 Total fluid flow device

 There's a lymph vessel in the middle of that blackness.

Beautiful TX sky

Oh. And I want to bake. :'(

TX 6/4-6/6

Day 4: Saturday, June 4, 2011
After a fun Friday night, most of us slept in. I got up around 10:30 and wandered around. I walked past Schlotzsky's to the Traditions bookstore and Hurricane Harry's, exploring the options of stores and restaurants. Schlotzsky's is a fast food restaurant dishing up (healthy?) sandwiches and pizza. Their bread is a perfect squat cylinder, which they like to call "Bunz." I thought that was cute, plus the pumpernickel is dark brown to close to black. Interesting when you make a sandwich. I walked back to the apartment (oh my god, it's sooo hot!) and did some reading. When I migrated to read by the pool, it was just too warm and I ended up dozing off on my bag instead. Dan came out and we chatted for a bit. It's always a fun conversation with Dan. He said he went to Schlotzsky's twice now since coming here and that it was amazing, so later for dinner we gathered everyone to go there for dinner. All day Saturday and Sunday their 8" pizzas are only $2.99! Such a good price. I got the chipotle chicken pizza, which came with a generous dallop of guacamole on top. Spread that green sucka across the whole pizza. Damn, this is one tasty pizza, but I could do with a little less guac and 2-3 pieces less chicken to let the cheese and veggies shine a little more.

After we walked by Crazy Cajuns and just chatted outside there, randomly, haha. I think we went back to the apartment after that and wandered/talked.

Day 5: Sunday, June 5, 2011
What did I do this day? Oh yeah, I went to Evans library and blogged yesterday's post. After that, I went to Taco Bell and McDonalds and it started thunderstorming! Crazy! I can't believe how heavy it rains. Gigantic plops of raindrops. Strangest thing is that it's very warm as it's raining. Eventually came back to the apartment, and did an hour run. Wow, did I sweat. I usually don't sweat that much, but I think it's the long run I did plus the heat of Texas. I met up with the others at Dixie Chicken later, after they'd eaten, then we wandered all the way to Kyle Field and the Rec Center. Both of those are HUGEEEE. Lots of fun shenanigans along the way and back. Found some toads hopping around. Fun Sunday.
Day 6: Monday, June 6, 2011
Finally started working on my project. Went with Tam and we got our assignment from Dr Quick. We went to the lab and started coding in LabVIEW. Stayed there until 7 pm trying to get the thing to run right. It started pouring and flashing lightning, even more than yesterday. We both were super hungry but it was raining so much so we couldn't really leave. Tam eventually just biked home (good thing it's warm rain) and came back with his car. He took us to this Mongolian BBQ place and we ate there. Pretty good (I mixed scallops, fish, lots of veggies and their Kanzhu sauce with udon noodles), but kinda pricy. Didn't even get any leftovers for total of $12+tip. After we both got a pint of Haagen Daz chai tea ice cream. Came home and ate that. Wowwww, sooo good! Still kinda sweet, but good flavor! I swam for 30 min in the pool at midnight. Really nice and warm. Yay Texas warmth.

TX First Weekend

Here are more pictures from our tour around campus on June 1st (slideshow opens in new window)

Slideshow design generated with Smilebox

 Day 2: June 2nd
"S" and I leave at 8:30 am to walk down University to the Veterinary buildings across the railroad. It only takes 10 minutes to walk there, so we hang around for a bit. We take a look at the Critical Care Cafe and look at the decorations. All along the walls are paintings and photos of animals - dogs, cats, cows, horses, etc. This is a very elaborate veterinary school. We come back to Dr. Quick's office and wait. He comes some time after 9 am since he had to drop off his kid at school. As he's quite the talker, and passionate too, he tells us more about the two projects: pulsatile lymph flow and bat blood vessel reconstruction. Total, he probably talked 3 and a half hours. He gets excited about what he talks about, and he really knows what he's explaining. Plus, he tells it in a way that is understandable, and even writes things on the board so we understand. The most exciting thing for me was seeing my two BioE classes from last semester and a couple other classes prior integrating into the projects described. Transport phenomenon and cardiovascular physiology! I actually understand this! This is why I got pretty interested in the lymph flow project, although the other project sounded interesting to work with the bats (which are trained to sleep with their wing open in a lego-constructed box!!!)

After finally being saved by our GSI Tam, who mentioned lunch to Dr. Quick, we escaped around 1 pm. Tam was really nice and he drove us to HEB supermarket so we could buy food. I lingered as I usually do at the grocery and felt bad to get so much, but I'm glad I did now. Yay snacks and sandwich materials. Dude, HEB has the awesomest coupons. Buy one get this free.

I did some reading about the lymph project and then looked at the NSF grant for the bat blood vessel one, but I still felt drawn to the lymph one.

Eventually, we all went to dinner at Antonio's Pizza by the Slice. Dannggg, HUGE slices of pizza and of many different varieties. I got the black bean avocado one; pizza crust with black beans replacing marinara sauce, crumbled cheese, avocado, and some other vegetable. The black beans kinda sucked out the flavor, so I dumbed all the pizza condiments on it and stole S's red oions to give it more flavor. Afterward, I was very full. We went back the apartment after that, hung out, talked, went to the pool, wandered. Good day.

Back to front: Sausage/pepperoni, ranch chicken, black bean avocado

Day 3: June 3rd
S and I went in the morning to meet up with Dr Quick again. After a little more talking and explanation, I decided on the lymph one and S decided on the bat blood vessel one. We got a bunch of articles to read to prime us on it and then we left around noon. I dragged S along with me to the Chef Tai Gourmet Truck to get Asian-fusion. We both got 2 tacos, one Korean BBQ beef and one caramelized brussel sprouts and tofu. The two stuffed tacos morphed into four normal sized tacos for me.

 Caramelized brussel sprouts and tofu (L) and Korean BBQ beef (R)

 The Chef Tai Mobile Bistro

Me and my box of tacos

The Korean beef taco was very flavorful and delivious. The tofu one was a little lacking in flavor but nonetheless good. We ate the tacos in the McDonalds. McDonalds here is HUGE and very nice. They have an extension with lots of chairs, tables, benches, couches to study and eat on! And it's clean here. AND, best of all, it's SUPER CHEAP! The ice cream is only 50 cents, sundaes $1. Sooo good.

After I wandered around North campus and into a couple of buildings:

Later I got most of us plus a CivEng intern to go to Downtown Bryan for  First Fridays. By stroke of luck, another gourmet food truck was there: Madden's Street Cuisine. S and I split one of their specials: softshell crab sandwich. It came with their spiced up shoestring fries (with cilantro). It was pretty good, although I don't think I'm that much a fan of eating the softshell crab. Softshell crab sandwich with (spicy) slaw and fries We wandered around Bryan more. We went into Must Be Heaven and got Blue Bell ice cream. My first time having it. Got it since Becca said it's "the best". I got the cinnamon flavor (yay cinnamon!). Dude, the single scoop ($1.85+tax) is like a third or half a pint! (My photos on yelp)  After, we came back to the apartment then went to Daisy Dukes for some country clubbin'!!! It was SOOO MUCH FUN. First thing we do when we get in: country line dancing! It's like the electric slide but country! There were waitresses walking 'round with test tube racks filled with dollar test tube shots. These are basically mixed drinks. Soo cool! They also played hip hop and gangster music. Danced to that too. Ash, L, and E danced like crazy, but Ash most of all! She's sooo energetic and fun! Eventually, I danced with this guy who does fancy footwork, like top-rocking. He was pretty cool. He then showed me how to two-step, even though he admitted he didn't really know himself, being from Utah and all.  Man oh man. That was a great first Friday to begin this internship. A lot of things, I admit, making this post long, but so worth it.

Howdy from Texas!

Well, haha, totally didn't post the day after my last post. As usual. Oh well. Things come up. More on that later. It is now time to post about my last two and half days in College Station, Texas!!!!

I arrived at Dallas Airport on Monday afternoon. The airport is HUGE!!!! There are four terminals, A, B, C, D. They even have this tram that can take you from terminal to terminal. I didn't take it. Rather, I wanted to explore the airport to kill the hour between layover flights. Walking through, I took these pictures:

 Two stories of vendors at DFW Airport

 Awesome random structure to walk through (terminal D)

 Touch screen info booth! Lists where everything you'd want to know is.

Cute Texas souvenirs!

Then, 30 minutes later, I arrived in the TINY airport in College Station, where Dr Hsieh picked me up. He is such a nice professor! He picked up me and another intern and took us back to our apartment. The apartment is NICE!!! There's an outdoor pool, gym on the 5th floor, nice decor inside, and the whole street of bars and restaurants right across the street! The weather is hot and humid during the day (90 degrees!!!) but it's wonderful at night. Right now, I'm sitting poolside writing this blog. It's breezy and feels great. I would like to sleep out here. And funny thing, it's 11 pm!

Day 0: May 31st

After getting picked up and then settled in at the apartment, we get driven to this Chinese buffet nearby. Since it's 2 hours ahead of California time, I had only just eaten a large lunch a couple of hours ago. But since I'm also a big eater, I took a plate. Good pineapple chicken and veggies, good watermelon. Weird red sauce covered bananas o.0

I met all the other interns. They are all really nice and fun to talk to. We've got multiple BioE, one Chemistry, and one or two electrical engineering and/or mechanical engineering students. A couple from around Texas, three from Tulane, one from Sac, and one from Minnesota. We explored the street across from our apartment: full of bars.

 A sign in front of one of the bars

Bottlecap Alley

The sleep was really bad though. I was cold. I left the window open to let in the hot air to counteract the freezing air conditioning but then that just let in the NOISY birds in the morning. Interesting birds, those fellas.

"S" playing the profound sounding piano

The kitchen at the apartment. Convection stovess!!! I want to cook!!!

Day 1: June 1st

We meet up in the front lobby at 8:30 am and go to get our IDs. My hair is sooo fluffy! Haha, but I really like using this duo-straightener-hair dryer that my roommate brought along. Then we went to Dr Hsieh's office and conference room at Thompson Hall to set up some things. "B" gave us a tour of the engineering side of campus, which is just like one-fifth of the entire campus. TAMU is GINORMOUS!!! It's seriously 4 or 5 times the size of UC Berkeley. The trouble was that it was sooo hot and sunny. We were all exhausted walking around. The campus is very nice, but it was just so spread out and huge and we had to walk around under the blazing heat. We really enjoyed sitting inside. At noon, Dr Hsieh treated us to the Sbisa Dining Commons. It was good. They actually cook your pasta there for you. I like this a lot better than Crossroads at Berkeley, where the sauce just sits in a hot waterbath and you spoon it over wet pasta. Nasty. Here, the sauce was cooked over a skillet, and the pasta added to the skillet and tossed by the cook, then served in a large beautiful plate. They say Sbisa is the largest dining common in the US! The sweet tea here is sooo tasty too!

After we got to meet up with our mentor. "S" and I went to the Veterinary School of Medicine to meet Dr Quick. We first met with the GSI Tam, who gave us a tour of the lab rooms. Some cool stuff! I got excited about his work with lymph vessels and already started thinking about what I could research and help out with. After, we met with Dr Quick, who gave us an exciting and passionate but lonnnggggggggggg talk about the projects we could be working on for these next 9.5 weeks. I got really excited about the lymph one, but the idea to work with bats is sooo cool! At 4:30, we left to go the REU Welcome BBQ at ILSB. We came 45 min late and there was almost no food left. I managed to scavenge a sausage link, a small brisket slice, beans, mashed potatoes, SWEET TEA <3, and salad. I love mashed potatoes, and I have found I love the Sweet tea in the South!!!! I'm gonna need to buy me a jug.

We went back to the apartment after that. After a much-needed nap from all that hot walking, I went to the pool and swam laps. The other girls came down and swam with me. Eventually we stopped and just sat poolside talking to a physics REU intern. He was pretty cool. Then, after a shower, I met with "S" at the ASC and we read up a little bit about Quick's research and chatted. "S" brought crochet stuff. Sometime I will show her how to crochet a cute round chick or teddy bear. I wish I brought my crochet stuff! Sleep was good this night. Quite warm, now with two covers and my long sleeved shirt.